Eclipse Crossing - Here's the 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Sorry, sports-car fans with nostalgia for a certain era – Mitsubishi still insists on using the Eclipse name on a crossover. One that’s now restyled.

A plug-in hybrid version will be offered overseas, but not here. The next Eclipse Cross will go on sale in the States in the first quarter of 2021, following launches in Australia and New Zealand.

Styling changes include a new front bumper guard and a different layout for the lights.

The rear hatch and rear window get re-worked, and Mitsu claims this helps with rear visibility. The taillights are now taller and extend more towards the front of the car, and the hatch now has a hexagonal shape.

The interior is updated, with door trim that matches the seat color, a standard 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, volume and radio knobs for the audio system, and the removal of the touchpad infotainment controller.

The 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder carries over, as does all-wheel drive and the continuously-variable that has eight “speeds” and a sport mode.

That’s about it. Really. It really is a mild refresh, so mild that I might not make our informal minimum word count of 250. Unless I tell you about that time that I was at this seedy dive bar and there was this dude with crazy eyes looking for a fight and….

Yeah, that’s close enough. Anyway, there’s no news on pricing yet.

[Images: Mitsubishi]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Ciscokidinsf Ciscokidinsf on Oct 16, 2020

    Extremely ancient 10 year old powertrain with a CVT that will crap itself immediately past the 100K mile warranty. With a less graceful design and a bunch of chrome with a larger screen. The usual Mitsu recipe. This is a rewarmed Outlander Sport. Hard pass.

  • Sirwired Sirwired on Oct 16, 2020

    I guess it's a useful factoid that Honda is still sourcing infotainment systems from Mitsubishi. I can't believe Honda is paying another company real money for that mediocre garbage. The best thing that can be said about the current generation system (which is apparently used in this vehicle) is that it's less-awful than the one they sold to Honda to put in the Civic and CR-V.

  • Master Baiter "That said, the Inflation Reduction Act apparently does run afoul of WTO rules..."Pfft. The Biden administration doesn't care about rules. The Supreme Court said they couldn't forgive student load debt; they did it anyway. Decorum and tradition says you don't prosecute former presidents; they are doing it anyway. They made the CDC suspend evictions though they had no constitutional authority to do so.
  • 1995 SC Good. To misquote Sheryl Crow "If it makes them unhappy, it can't be that bad"
  • 1995 SC The letters on the hatch aren't big enough. hard pass
  • Ajla Those letters look like they are from AutoZone.
  • Analoggrotto Kia EV9 was voted the best vehicle in the world and this is the best TOYOTA can do? Nice try, next.
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